Surrey County Cross-Country Championship Race – Denbies Vineyard, Dorking – Sunday 4th January 2026. Words: Mark Tennyson, Photos: James Harvey
Spectacular scenes greeted attendees of this edition of the Surrey XC Champs as much of the course was either on compacted snow & ice or very ‘claggy’ mud. The shaded tracks running across the steep hillside at the back of the course were very white, which contrasted with the remainder of the route over varying shades of light & dark coloured mud.
Senior Women – 8km – 2 laps:
Evie Warren’s superb third place finish led Guildford & Godalming’s senior women to team silver at the Surrey Cross-Country Championships held at a very chilly Denbies Vineyard on Sunday. Evie finished one place in front of her teammate Suzie Monk, who won this race at Croydon last season. Ellie Bull (14th) and Hope Smith (20th) on her debut completed the 4-to-score team competition.
A further sixteen G’s from a total of 106 finishers followed, with Jilly Raw (21st) and Emily Relton (22nd) next in. Although this was the senior Surrey champs – as the Masters have their own separate event – there were notable age category results for the women in green & black. These included Jilly (w40-2), Nici Cahusac (w50-2), Laura hales (w55-1) and Susanna Harrison (w60-1) who completed her thirty-seventh Surrey championship race.
Emily Ealham, Christine Robinson, Karen Bryant, Rebecca Brennan, Isabel N-Smith, Zoe Rowe,Jade Christie, Scarlett Mitchell, Jackie White, Krisz Koch and Beth Davies completed the G’s contingent.
Teams:
1 – Aldershot Farnham & District – 35
2 – Guildford & Godalming – 41
3 – Epsom & Ewell – 64
Senior Men – 12km – 3 laps:
Tom Foster continued his excellent winter form with a ninth place finish to also lead the senior men to team silver. He was joined by Adrien Royer (16th), John Sanderson (17th), Ed Brewer (19th), Nick Lightfoot (23rd) and Jake Bowles (28th) on a course to his liking.
Since a run of bronze & silver team medals in 2018 to 2020 and then a gap, the men have improved one place over each of the last three seasons, finishing fourth in 2024, third in 2025 and runners-up this time.
The men fielded their largest ever team at this championship event with forty-one G’s completing the 12km hilly three-lap course. Similar to the women, there were some excellent debuts and strong performances across the team. These included Ollie Gosden (m50-3), Terry Booth (m55-1), Guy Holcroft (m55-3), David Williams, Mark Tennyson and David Renshaw finishing 1-2-3 in the m60’s and Paul Sanderson (m70-1).
Teams:
1 – Belgrave – 89
2 – Guildford & Godalming -113
3 – Holland Sports – 122
Other notable GGAC performances:
Ollie Jermy (U20-1) gold and also a team bronze, along with Abel Davies and Louis Bell.
U15 girls – team silver (two points away from the gold) – Emily, Sophie, Hope & Charlotte.
U13 boys – team bronze – Thomas, Finlay, Milo and Joshua.
We thank our coaches – Beth Davies, Nicole Brown, Daniel Wallis and Alexie Calvert-Ansari for overseeing the Juniors during the day.
We also extend a special thanks to our official Matt Lythell, who, as well as being heavily involved in the course set-up, was also the Race Referee on the day.
